Miracles are on the Horizon

Jeff started having bowel movements Friday night. This is huge because it means that we can work him back up to eating again. The thought is that he most likely had an ileus and it just corrected itself. Jeff and I removed his bowel spasm medicine Thursday night and we think that might have had something to do with it.
Dr. Tim wants to get a dietitian in here so someone can guide us on how much Jeff needs to be taking in to get his strength back. Right now he is still mostly sticking to liquids like Ensure. He is tired a lot, but I think that is because he needs some nutrients for energy.
He is still vomiting on occasion, but not like he was before. I truly believe all the prayers, chants and positive energy are what is slowly going to bring Jeff back to us. So, everyone keep doing what your doing. Hope all is well with everyone. Take care.

-Abby

We are back home

We came home Friday afternoon. They ran some blood work on Jeff on Wednesday before he was scheduled to have surgery and his sodium was 118, but they like it to be in the 130s. He was admitted to the hospital and was given IV fluids with sodium. Thursday his number was 124, but his pain was creeping up and they were giving shots of Fentanyl in the IV for the break thru pain, but it never seemed to get on top of it. They eventually switched to a PCA pain pump, but that did not seem to make a difference. They started to give him nutrients thru an IV Thursday evening to increase his nutrition. More blood was drawn Friday morning, but his sodium had only climbed up to 128.
Dr Hamilton and come in to visit with us and said he had looked at the actual scans with the radiologist and the metastisis was more than what they originally thought. There were some spots found up by his liver, but there didn't seem to be any inside the liver. The surgeon said that he could still help with the bowel blockage, but didn't think that he would do anything that would help with Jeff's pain. He had come to the new conclusion that removing the right kidney was not something that would help Jeff's pain and felt very much that the tumors in the pelvic region was causing Jeff's pain. Dr. Hamilton wanted us to be aware that we might just be prolonging Jeff's pain.
I am not for sure how much of this information Jeff knows as his pain was so severe that I don't think he was able to hear too much.
Jeff decided Friday afternoon that he couldn't handle the pain any longer and needed to come home. Since we have been home we still have been battling his pain and he is now taking liquid Oxy again for breakthrough pain. Although he did not vomit during his hospital stay he began vomiting again once he got home. He had lots of visitors for his birthday, so today he is mostly resting plus we had a long night of vomiting and pain. When Jeff is able to I will make sure that he knows what the doctor said in the hospital and then he can decide what he would like to do. Jeff might want to try surgery again, but I am not for sure.
Thanks for all the prayers, gifts and positive energy for Jeff. Hope all is well with everyone and take care.

-Abby

Surgery is Scheduled

We got the go ahead for surgery this evening. We will check into St. Francis tomorrow morning. He will receive IV fluids for the day and is an add on to the end of the surgery schedule. We are thinking surgery will be about 4 or 5 pm.
The test Jeff had done earlier today did not show much. The contrast only got approximately 1/2 way down the small intestines. They think Jeff might have an ileus. Since the contrast did not make it that far down then this is just speculation and they won't know until they get into surgery.
We do know tomorrow that they are removing the mesh and Jeff will have a colostomy. We will talk tomorrow with Dr. Hamilton about the removal of the right kidney and any additional tumor removal. Jeff's birthday is the 17th. He will be 32 and will have made it 4 years (in age-diagnosed at 28) since diagnosis. Poor guy will most likely be in the hospital still. Take care everyone!! I am not for sure what the internet access will be like at the hospital, so it maybe a little while before another update.
Hope all is well with everyone!!!


-Abby

Schedule

I talked to Dr.Hamilton's office today. Jeff is scheduled for the Upper GI study tomorrow at 9:45 am and then we will meet with Dr. Hamilton at 1:15pm later that day to get results and see when surgery might happen. Jeff is still sick, so he is hopeful that the surgery will be soon.
Take care everyone!!!

-Abby

No Surgery

Yesterday was an extremely long day. We arrived at Dr. Hamilton's office at 8:45 am. Then from that meeting there was a CT and blood work done. After the CT was done a radiology tech came and told us that Jeff was going to be admitted. By the way the hospital changed from Stormont-Vail to St. Francis (both are in Topeka).
So we go up to the room. All the nurse could tell us was that the CT showed an obstruction. By this time it is about 4:30 pm. Dr. Hamilton comes to talk to us about 5:30 pm regarding what the CT showed. He did state that Jeff had multiple bowel loops, but could not tell for sure where the obstruction was. He also saw some tumor progression on the right kidney, but did not indicate that it had infiltrated the kidney. He said that the right kidney appeared so deflated that if it was working at all that it was minimal. He felt that removing the right kidney would give him a greater success of getting that tumor since it was attached to the kidney. As for the blood work I don't have any of those results.
Dr. Hamilton wanted an upper GI tract study done because he said that he could not tell for sure where the obstruction was other than it was in his lower bowels/colon. He said the surgery was not an emergency, but that Jeff would continue to be sick until the obstruction was removed.
Jeff decided to come home last nite without having the upper GI tract study done. We are going to call Dr. Hamilton's office Monday to get the test scheduled for as early as possible. Once Jeff has had time to process those results we will schedule a surgery with Dr. Hamilton.
Dr. Tim said that Jeff should try to stick with liquid foods and stay away from the solids to keep the bacteria down. I think that is all from the 12-hour day yesterday. I will update you as we move through this process. Hope all is well with everyone!!! Take care!!!

Quick Update

Jeff had an x-ray done at Lawrence Memorial Hospital Wednesday night. We got the results yesterday and were told that Jeff has an obstruction in his colon. The vomiting has basically been his bowel because he has no other way to get rid of the contents that go into his stomach. Jeff has decided that surgery is an option again. We are meeting with Dr. Hamilton (surgeon in Topeka) for a consult this morning. Dr. Tim told us that we should be prepared to go from the appointment to surgery. We don't know for sure what will happen at this consultation. If they do take Jeff into surgery later this morning it will be at Stormont-Vail in Topeka. I know this is a sudden turn of events and a short entry, but we must be off now. Everyone take care and I will update as I have access to a computer. Hope all is well with everyone!!!

-Abby

The Latest

Jeff talked to Dr. Nelson (hospice Dr.) yesterday morning. Dr. Nelson seemed to think that the ibuprofen might be causing some of the vomiting and nausea that Jeff is experiencing, so we have removed it. We also added a second Prilosec to help with the increased heart burn that he is experiencing. Jeff was going to do a CT scan if there was a way to get around drinking the contrast, but that has been put on the back burner. We have been told that if the ibuprofen was the problem we should start seeing a turn around in a few days, but could take 2-3 weeks before he is completely back.
There is also the concern that it is tumor progression. It is the wonderful world of cancer where everything is an if, maybe, or probably. Nothing for sure just educated guesses. The hospice nurse made a last minute appointment with us today so she can listen to Jeff's bowels and do an assessment. Our regular hospice nurse is out of town so we will have the nurse temporarily covering her cases come this afternoon. They did switch his nausea medicine yesterday, but he is still battling the nausea. Hope all is well with everyone. Take care!

-Abby

Latest Update

Jeff went to the ER again Dec. 27. He was suffering from severe nausea and vomiting. They did some blood work, which all looked mostly normal, and have him some pain and nausea medicine IV. After that he seemed to feel a little better. He still wasn't able to eat for a little while. Jeff is now eating a little bit, but is still vomiting. He is taking in fluids pretty good though. Tomorrow I am calling to hospice to get a imaging test done, probably CT. We want to see if there is something causing him to be sick, so we can treat it. He is getting weak, but came down stairs for a little bit today and gave me pointers about making pizza. That was his specialty thanks to the training he got at Pizza Village in Ottawa. I think that is all for now.
Hope everyone is well and take care.

-Abby